The assault was simply one of many first steps of Republicans’ fascist takeover, Ocasio-Cortez mentioned.
Republicans throughout the nation are waging a motion to take away and censure Democratic lawmakers merely for talking out towards the GOP — a motion that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) is saying is the subsequent pure step after the GOP-backed tried coup on January 6, 2021.
On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez spoke at a rally with Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Florida) and Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones (D), who Republicans voted to expel from the legislature earlier this month. On the rally, she mentioned that the January 6 assault was simply one of many first steps towards the GOP’s objective of whole political management; reasonably than a big, violent coup, the GOP is implementing a sluggish takeover throughout the nation.
“For [Republicans], January 6 was only a costume rehearsal. As a result of, legally, let’s not lose the plot: They had been attempting to dam a duly elected official, on this case the president of the USA, from taking workplace,” she mentioned.
“Legislatures throughout the nation checked out that and [said], ‘you recognize what? Let’s attempt to get Consultant Jones out from workplace. Let’s attempt to get Rep. Zooey Zephyr in Montana out of workplace. Let’s attempt to kick out the folks as a result of we can not beat them,’” continued Ocasio-Cortez. “That’s their motive.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s speech got here as Montana Republicans voted to ban Zephyr, a Democrat and the primary brazenly trans lady to be elected to the state’s legislature, from the Home chamber for the rest of the legislative session. The vote got here after she spoke up for trans rights throughout a debate on a invoice that may ban gender affirming look after minors, saying that Republicans backing the invoice would have “blood” on their palms for voting to limit entry to the life-saving care.
Republicans honed in on the “blood” assertion in supposedly justifying her removing, although it’s clear that their precise motivations had been to silence a trans lady and Democrat within the chamber; saying one’s opponents would have “blood” on their hands is a typical phrase in politics, however solely Zephyr, it appears, has ever been punished for utilizing it.
Zephyr’s removing is only one of Republicans lawmakers’ current strikes to silence their Democratic colleagues, in blatant shows of fascism. Simply three weeks in the past, Republicans voted to expel Jones and his colleague Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson (D) as a result of the 2 participated in a peaceable protest within the state Home calling for gun security reform after a horrifying shooting at a faculty in Nashville killed three 9-year-old youngsters and three adults. The 2 had been later reinstated after widespread outcry over their expulsion.
These votes got here after the Republican-dominated U.S. Home voted in February to take away Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), the primary Black Muslim lady in Congress, from her committee assignments for what she mentioned amounted to pure Islamophobia.
In the meantime, Republicans and much proper officers are quickly eroding democracy throughout the nation, slashing folks’s rights, working to destroy voting rights in Democratic-leaning areas specifically and stoking huge corruption throughout the judicial system. Republicans’ fascist takeover appears to be taking place in plain sight, whereas mainstream Democrats appear content material to let it occur — although Ocasio-Cortez struck an optimistic notice, saying that progressive actions will have the ability to cease them.
“I can not emphasize sufficient — they won’t win. That is the final gasp of a motion that’s dying. That is what fascism does when it’s on its hind heels,” she mentioned. “It’s at all times darkest earlier than daybreak. We’re successful this factor.”
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